It is no secret that for many enterprises of the Russian defense industry, export work has become the only way to survive at a time when purchases of new weapons for the RF Armed Forces were extremely poorly financed. Then Russia armed others, but kept its army on starvation rations, and this historical moment is difficult to assess positively. Nevertheless, the work under export contracts allowed our enterprises not only not to lose production potential, but also to offer more advanced equipment to the Russian army, when money for rearmament appeared.
To do what was not there
The creation of the "Irkutsk branch" of the Su-30MK is one of the most interesting stories of the post-Soviet aviation industry. The plane's godfathers can be considered two leaders: Director General of the Irkutsk Aviation Production Association (IAPO, reorganized into Irkut Corporation in 2002) Alexei Fedorov and General Designer of Sukhoi Design Bureau Mikhail Simonov. Later, the president of the Irkut corporation, Oleg Demchenko, played an important role in the development of the program, under whose leadership the line of Irkutsk Su-30s developed in the interests of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
The Su-30MKI (the MK index means "commercial, modernized", and the next letter is reserved for the customer country, in this case India) became the first serial aircraft in our country belonging to the class of multifunctional fighters. Historically, no cars of this class were produced in the USSR. Combat aviation was specialized in the types of tasks to be solved: interceptors, front-line fighters, air superiority vehicles, strike aircraft. This was partly justified for the huge Soviet fleet of combat aircraft. In the new historical conditions for the external and then for the internal market, it was necessary to create more universal combat vehicles - multifunctional fighters.
Initially, the Su-30MKI program was conceived to retain for Russia one of the most capacious and attractive markets for combat aircraft - India. The problem was that the Indian market is highly competitive. It was not possible to promote aircraft that were mass-produced in Russia in the early 1990s on it. In addition, India was categorically not happy with the role of a simple buyer of weapons. In the new program, she wanted to act as a customer that determines the requirements for the aircraft, as well as a participant in cooperation and an aircraft manufacturer under license.
Sum of innovations
Indian Air Force requests were exceptionally high. This required the maximum use of the scientific and technical groundwork accumulated by the Russian aviation and radio-electronic industry in the development of the Su-30MKI. Suffice it to mention just a few of the many innovations.
The Su-30MKI became the world's first serial super-maneuverable fighter, which was provided by the installation of AL-31FP engines with a controlled thrust vector, an advanced remote control system and domestic developments in the field of aerodynamics. The power plant of the Su-30MK includes two AL-31FP bypass turbojet engines with an axisymmetric nozzle. The total thrust at the afterburner of 25,000 kgf provides horizontal flight at a speed of 2 M at high altitude and speed at low altitudes of 1350 km / h.
Differential deviation by angles of up to ± 15 degrees of axisymmetric nozzles of engines, the pivot axes of which are located at an angle of 32 degrees to each other, makes it possible to control the thrust vector in pitch and yaw. Depending on the forthcoming maneuver, the nozzles can be deflected synchronously with the horizontal tail unit or separately from it.
Prior to the Su-30MKI, not a single export-version fighter in the world was equipped with an onboard radar with a phased antenna array. This technology, which belongs to the fifth generation of combat aircraft, was used at that time on a limited number of US Air Force fighters. The integrated radar sighting system with a phased array, installed on the Su-30MKI, is capable of detecting and tracking up to 15 air targets and simultaneously attacking up to four of them. It is also worth noting that for the first time in domestic practice, on-board radio-electronic equipment (avionics), which has an open architecture, was installed on serial Su-30MKI.
At the time of the launch of the program, there were no electronic systems in Russia that would implement the stringent requirements of Indian customers. Therefore, for the first time in domestic practice, it was decided to integrate Western-made components into the avionics. The designers of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the Ramensk Instrument-Making Design Bureau and other domestic companies brilliantly coped with this.
More buyers
However, the project's problems went far beyond technology. Required non-standard management decisions. For the first time such a complex program was organized by a commercial enterprise - IAPO, which in the early 1990s was corporatized by the decision of the state. The planning depth was unusually large. Already at the signing of the first supply contract in 1996, a 20-year plan for the development of the program was outlined. In addition to development and supply, it included the transfer of documentation, the creation of production facilities, the deployment of operational infrastructure, training of specialists for licensed production in India by HAL. Previously, work of this scale in our country was organized and coordinated at the level of at least line ministries.
Another difficulty was that IAPO had to form and coordinate an international cooperation that was fundamentally new for the domestic defense industry. Finally, the IAPO completely fell the burden of solving financial problems associated with the development, testing and preparation of the production of a new combat complex.
Despite all these difficulties, in 2002 the first Su-30MKI was transferred to the Indian Air Force. The aircraft quickly passed the stage of "childhood diseases" and became the flagship of the Indian military aviation. A number of subsequent contracts, signed at the initiative of the Indian Ministry of Defense, brought the total order for the Su-30MKI to 272 vehicles. India's positive experience prompted two more customers to acquire the Irkutsk Su-30MKs: Algeria and Malaysia. Note that these countries also belong to the category of fastidious buyers, since they have the opportunity to choose between Russian and Western technology.
Due to the success of the Su-30MKI project, the Irkutsk Aviation Plant underwent re-equipment: digital technologies were introduced, the machine park was updated, world quality standards were established, and personnel training was organized. This will allow the company to successfully build military vehicles, as well as work on a new high-tech Russian airliner MS-21.
Aviation Industry Leader
In the process of working on the Algerian Su-30MKI (A) and the Malaysian Su-30MKM, the machine was constantly improved. Reliability increased, operational characteristics improved, new systems were introduced into the avionics. Profits from foreign supplies were invested in the technical re-equipment of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, a branch of the Irkut Corporation. As a result, to date, it has become one of the best in the technological equipment of enterprises not only of the aviation industry, but of the entire Russian defense industry.
In addition to the aircraft belonging to the "Indian" Su-30MK branch, the Yak-130, a two-seater combat training aircraft, is produced here. Also, the IAP has begun construction of the first samples of the newest Russian medium-haul liner MS-21, which is expected to be able to show competitive economic characteristics through the use of composite components in the structure.
Oleg Demchenko, President of OJSC Irkut Corporation, spoke about how the success of the MKI project had a beneficial effect on the fate of the Irkutsk enterprise: “The Su-30MKI program has become the basis for the development of our corporation. We invested the profit from export deliveries in the development of new projects, such as the Yak-130 combat trainer and the MS-21 passenger airliner. An equally important area of our investment is the radical technical re-equipment of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. We carried out a comprehensive implementation of digital technologies, updated our machine tool park, introduced world quality standards, and conducted massive retraining of engineers and workers. As a result, the capabilities of the enterprise have significantly increased. In the past, in the best years, we flew up to 30 fighters a year. Today, the total annual production of the Su-30SM and Yak-130 is approaching 60 aircraft. The growth was achieved against the backdrop of tremendous work on preparation for serial production of MC-21 aircraft and the production of the first MC-21-300 airliners intended for testing."
We do for ourselves
The optimal combination of combat effectiveness and operational characteristics of the Irkutsk Su-30 and the cost parameters of the program attracted the attention of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which began in the early 2010s to radically re-equip the combat aircraft fleet. As a result, in 2012, contracts were signed for the delivery of two large batches of Su-30SM multifunctional fighters to the Russian Air Force. This aircraft became a development of the Su-30MKI and Su-30MKM export aircraft. In a short time, Irkut and Sukhoi Design Bureau modified the aircraft to meet the requirements of the RF Ministry of Defense, and in 2013 it successfully passed tests that opened the way for it to join the troops. Today the regiment armed with Su-30SM fighters, stationed at the Domna air base of the Eastern Military District, has fully mastered the new aircraft and is on alert.
The two-seater multifunctional Su-30SM was chosen for its coastal units by the naval aviation of the Russian Navy. They are already being supplied to the troops. The new foreign customer of the Su-30SM is Russia's CSTO ally, Kazakhstan.
The Irkutsk Su-30 family has good prospects. The total order for the Su-30MKI / MKI (A) / MKM / SM aircraft exceeded 400 aircraft. It is expected to increase. About 300 aircraft are successfully operated by the troops. The first vehicles delivered to India are entering the middle stage of their life cycle, which promises serious repair orders.
The process of docking different elements of the Su-30SM
At this stage, the aircraft will take on the appearance of an aircraft, after which it will go to the final assembly workshop.
It is still difficult to recognize the Yak-130 combat trainer in the structure carried by the crane over the workshop of the Irkutsk aircraft plant. The acquisition of wings is ahead. Su-30MKI and Su-30SM assembly line. Today, if we talk about the interest of customers and production volumes, the Russian military aircraft industry feels much better than the civilian one. It remains to be hoped that this will not always be the case, and civil projects will also gain strength and dynamism.
Plus "BrahMos"
Work is underway to modernize fighters. The first such project is to equip a part of the Su-30MKI with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles. BrahMos is another high-profile Russian-Indian project, in which, from our side, the Reutov-based VPK NPO Mashinostroyenia OJSC participated. BrahMos is built on the basis of the Yakhont export anti-ship missile (in the domestic version it is called the P-800 Onyx). The missile is designed to destroy a wide range of targets, has a high flight range (up to 290 km), a high supersonic speed (up to 2, 8 M), a powerful combat load (up to 250 kg), and low visibility for radars. The flight of the rocket, the weight of which in the basic version is 3000 kg, is carried out in the altitude range of 10-14 thousand meters along a variable trajectory. In the new rocket, the principle of "fire and forget" is implemented in practice, since the missile finds the target itself. The air-launched missile is 500 kg lighter than the base one. According to experts, there are no analogues of such a rocket, which would have a supersonic speed and a similar flight range, in the world yet. In relation to foreign counterparts, which are in operation today, "BrahMos" has advantages in speed three times, in range - two and a half times, in response time - three to four times.
The first aircraft modified in India, designed for testing the aviation version of the BrahMos-A missile, was handed over to the Indian Air Force in February 2015. The Su-30MKI + BrahMos complex has unique capabilities to engage sea targets with strong air defense. The program of "big modernization" is being discussed, as a result of which the "Irkutsk" Su-30 will receive a more efficient radar and updated avionics.
It is interesting that the line of Su-30MK aircraft has not only the "Indian", but also the "Chinese" branch. The production of the Su-30MKK was organized at the aircraft plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. But that's a completely different story.
